Originally Posted by
nntrixie
That is so true.
Some years ago, my son contracted for a new house to be built. He bought some land or rather he found the land, the homebuilder bought the land and it was to be included in the overall price of the home.
My son asked the builder to use some locals as he knew some of the electricians, plumbers, carpenters, etc., but he said no he had his own crew.
The boss of this crew was Mexican - possibly illegal and all the workers were illegal.
My son was not in town during much of the building as he was working elsewhere. One day my husband went to check on things. He was still in his suit, and as he got out of the car, he reached in and pulled out a cap someone had given him - it was black with gold braid.
As he got out of the car, he shouted the word the illegals used to use in the valley when the BP spotter planes came over.
Every worker bolted and ran into the bushes - just disappeared. He truly didn't intend that, he thought they would laugh.
At any rate, the house was so poorly built, it was shameful. My son paid for an inspection when it was about 80% completed and the inspector said it would take at least $20K to just fix what he could see and he hadn't checked the plumbing and wiring.
There were holes in the corners, even after taping and bedding. There was a huge hole in the side of a bathroom cabinet, they had done, but still installed it. The sink was supposed to be under the window, but they had put the cabinets in wrong and the window in the wrong place. The windows were off by about an inch from top to bottom. There was only sub flooring, but they said it was ready for covering and there were large cracks in the sub flooring. It had a back deck, built up high as the house sat on a hill. It swayed from side to side and was unsafe to walk on - the railings wobbled. There were a lot of other things I can't remember.
It was a nightmare - my son refused to purchase he house, they threatened but really they didn't want to go there. There was another house in town sitting vacant for the same reason. It was sad as the land was a really pretty place.
I read about a housing development somewhere that had several houses just collapse.